28,386 research outputs found
Interfaces (and Regional Congruence?) in Spin Glasses
We present a general theorem restricting properties of interfaces between
thermodynamic states and apply it to the spin glass excitations observed
numerically by Krzakala-Martin and Palassini-Young in spatial dimensions d=3
and 4. We show that such excitations, with interface dimension smaller than d,
cannot yield regionally congruent thermodynamic states. More generally, zero
density interfaces of translation-covariant excitations cannot be pinned (by
the disorder) in any d but rather must deflect to infinity in the thermodynamic
limit. Additional consequences concerning regional congruence in spin glasses
and other systems are discussed.Comment: 4 pages (ReVTeX); 1 figure; submitted to Physical Review Letter
An investigation into the impact of policy reform on the level of structural change in the agri-food sector of Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands
This paper conducts a detailed, micro-focused investigation on the implications of recent agricultural policy changes on the structure of production systems in Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands in terms of farm numbers, system switching, specialisation, the role of economies of scale, on-farm investment, off-farm employment and economic viability. Given the close relationship between farm structure and agricultural production, the impact of the recent CAP reform on production decisions should give a good indication of the form agricultural structural change will take. Two competing hypotheses of post decoupling structural change are proposed; a âproduction inducing effectâ and an âexpectations effectâ. Using Irish, Danish and Dutch micro-data, which are comparable due to their participation in FADN, a descriptive analysis of the key characteristics of production in the agri-food sectors in each country will be performed using key indicators of structural change. The results indicate that the âexpectations effectâ, which claims that producers may adopt a âsafety firstâ strategy and make only minimal changes to production plans in case future payments are reassessed and re-linked to production or an agricultural activity, seems to be prevalent.Policy Reform, Agricultural Structural Change, FADN, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management,
A statistical network analysis of the HIV/AIDS epidemics in Cuba
The Cuban contact-tracing detection system set up in 1986 allowed the
reconstruction and analysis of the sexual network underlying the epidemic
(5,389 vertices and 4,073 edges, giant component of 2,386 nodes and 3,168
edges), shedding light onto the spread of HIV and the role of contact-tracing.
Clustering based on modularity optimization provides a better visualization and
understanding of the network, in combination with the study of covariates. The
graph has a globally low but heterogeneous density, with clusters of high
intraconnectivity but low interconnectivity. Though descriptive, our results
pave the way for incorporating structure when studying stochastic SIR epidemics
spreading on social networks
Productivity and the Determinants of Efficiency in Irish Agriculture (1996-2006)
The competitiveness and productivity of Irish agriculture has been at the forefront of debate in recent times given successive and impending changes to agricultural policy. This paper examines the trend in total factor productivity in Irish agriculture over the recent past and explores the effects of specific variables on relative efficiency levels. The findings of this research have shown that productivity growth was highest in the Cattle Rearing sector followed by the Dairy, Cattle Finishing, Sheep and Cereals sectors during the period 1996 to 2006. The research has also shown that efficiency levels are, in general, positively correlated with extension use soil quality, the overall size of the farm, the level of intensification and the level of specialisation. The use of artificial insemination was also positively correlated with efficiency in the Dairy sectorProduction Economics,
Mean-field solution of the small-world network model
The small-world network model is a simple model of the structure of social
networks, which simultaneously possesses characteristics of both regular
lattices and random graphs. The model consists of a one-dimensional lattice
with a low density of shortcuts added between randomly selected pairs of
points. These shortcuts greatly reduce the typical path length between any two
points on the lattice. We present a mean-field solution for the average path
length and for the distribution of path lengths in the model. This solution is
exact in the limit of large system size and either large or small number of
shortcuts.Comment: 14 pages, 2 postscript figure
Through-the-thickness fatigue crack closure behavior in an aluminum alloy
The variation in fatigue crack closure behavior across the thickness of aluminum alloy specimens was investigated. The specimen geometries examined were the middle crack tension M(T) and compact tension C(T). The fatigue crack closure behavior was determined using remote displacement and strain gages, near tip strain gages, and fatigue striations. A hybrid experimental/numerical method was also used to infer the crack opening loads. The results indicate a variation in crack opening load, of 0.2 in the specimen interior to 0.4 to 0.5 at the surface
Localization properties of a tight-binding electronic model on the Apollonian network
An investigation on the properties of electronic states of a tight-binding
Hamiltonian on the Apollonian network is presented. This structure, which is
defined based on the Apollonian packing problem, has been explored both as a
complex network, and as a substrate, on the top of which physical models can
defined. The Schrodinger equation of the model, which includes only nearest
neighbor interactions, is written in a matrix formulation. In the uniform case,
the resulting Hamiltonian is proportional to the adjacency matrix of the
Apollonian network. The characterization of the electronic eigenstates is based
on the properties of the spectrum, which is characterized by a very large
degeneracy. The rotation symmetry of the network and large number of
equivalent sites are reflected in all eigenstates, which are classified
according to their parity. Extended and localized states are identified by
evaluating the participation rate. Results for other two non-uniform models on
the Apollonian network are also presented. In one case, interaction is
considered to be dependent of the node degree, while in the other one, random
on-site energies are considered.Comment: 7pages, 7 figure
The Effect of Pure State Structure on Nonequilibrium Dynamics
Motivated by short-range Ising spin glasses, we review some rigorous results
and their consequences for the relation between the number/nature of
equilibrium pure states and nonequilibrium dynamics. Two of the consequences
for spin glass dynamics following a deep quench to a temperature with broken
spin flip symmetry are: (1) Almost all initial configurations lie on the
boundary between the basins of attraction of multiple pure states. (2) Unless
there are uncountably many pure states with almost all pairs having zero
overlap, there can be no equilibration to a pure state as time goes to
infinity. We discuss the relevance of these results to the difficulty of
equilibration of spin glasses. We also review some results concerning the
``nature vs. nurture'' problem of whether the large-time behavior of both
ferromagnets and spin glasses following a deep quench is determined more by the
initial configuration or by the dynamics realization.Comment: 20 page
Visual Mining of Epidemic Networks
We show how an interactive graph visualization method based on maximal
modularity clustering can be used to explore a large epidemic network. The
visual representation is used to display statistical tests results that expose
the relations between the propagation of HIV in a sexual contact network and
the sexual orientation of the patients.Comment: 8 page
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